Mistake
by feeling-o'-stupidity
Summary: Phineas made a mistake. He shouldn't be forgiven. Nobody who did what he had should. He did THE lowest thing he could. And the worst part? He had hurt Isabella.
1. Chapter 1

Phineas sat on his bed. He found himself checking his phone multiple times a second. Not that anyone could blame him. He wasn't actually expecting to get anything, not after what he'd done, but if he did he wasn't going to miss it. He knew he'd screwed up, but he also knew there was nothing he could do to fix it. His life had lost all meaning. He hadn't talked to anyone in a week and had basically locked himself in his room. A self imprisonment, because he knew he deserved to be punished for what he had done; anyone who heard what he had done would have agreed, anyone who saw him would have said he suffered enough. It all went down the crapper for Phineas starting about 5 months ago.

Phineas and Isabella had been dating for almost a year now. Phineas was still working on his relationship abilities, he had never thought anything was really good enough for Isabella despite her praise and admiration towards everything he did. Nothing was ever perfect for him because he never thought it was perfect for Isabella. They loved each other. Phineas was just still working out how to show Isabella, perhaps if he had outgrown his obliviousness yet he'd have realized that the only thing that Isabella ever wanted was him, and that being with him made everything perfect for her.

Isabella had been out of town for a week visiting relatives so Phineas was feeling about as down as ever, which still wasn't much for him. He went to a diner to get some pancakes for dinner to cheer himself up when he noticed someone was crying in the booth behind him

"Excuse me, but is everything alright?" he said with genuine concern for this person he didn't even know

"Oh yea.. well no but.. its okay my boyfriend just dumped me." Phineas was a little surprised, why would someone dump her?

"I'm sorry to hear that... hmmm what's the absolute most amazing thing you've ever eaten?" The girl looked at him confused but thought on it for a second

"This one strawberry ice cream I had once. It had chocolate fudge chucks in it with skittles and gummie bears. Why do you ask?" Phineas was already on his phone

"Did you get all that?... Good. When will... 6 seconds not bad." He hung up. He was still looking at the girl over his seat when a delivery man arrived.

"Food delivery for Phineas Flynn?" Phineas signed for it and put it down in front of the girl. She opened it skeptically and saw the ice cream

"How did you do that?"

"I have my ways."

"Wait did he say Phineas Flynn? As in Danville's _famous_ Phineas Flynn?" Phineas smiled and nodded yes "Well please take a seat have some of this, they delivered WAY to much anyway." Phineas and the girl, whose name he found out to be Amanda, talked and ate for about an hour. He saw her for the next week while Isabella was gone. When Isabella came back she asked him what he did while she was gone. Immediately his mind went to Amanda but at the same time his hand went to his ear, and his mouth said "Nothing much."

Phineas continued to hang out with Amanda and lie to Isabella about it. People would think Isabella would be able to tell when Phineas lied after having known him so long. But Phineas had very rarely lied to her about anything so she didn't have much past experience to go off of.

About a month to two months after meeting her Phineas realized what was happening between him and Amanda but he did nothing to stop it. He felt as though he didn't have to try as hard to please her, despite getting much fewer compliments than from Isabella. Truth be told, he didn't like Amanda in any comparable way to the way he loved Isabella. But having someone who liked him that he felt virtually no obligation to impress felt amazing to Phineas.

After they had been seeing each other for 3 months Amanda kissed Phineas while they were at a movie. Phineas didn't hate it, or try to stop it for that matter. Kissing naturally felt good but Phineas was so relaxed kissing Amanda. Whenever he kissed Isabella his body would tense up, he would start sweating, and his heart would race, but with Amanda it was so relaxing; it required no effort.

4 and a half months into it Phineas realized he had to stop what he was doing. He had known it was wrong a majority of the time, and at first it was nice to get out of the narrow realm of good. He knew he had to break it off with Amanda before something went terribly wrong. He decided to meet Amanda and break it off. He was sitting at the table across from Amanda

"Amanda there's something I have to say."

"You can't say anything until I get another kiss" They shared a quick kiss unaware of the girl in pink who had just dropped everything she was holding in front of the restaurant and was heading for the door.

"Okay Amanda its been great to spend this time with you but I can't do this anymore. I have a girlfriend and I love her and I like you but I just don't feel the same way and someone is going to get hurt if I keep up this lying. I've never lied to someone in my whole life and I've been doing it daily for months. I'm sorry but I love her too much to lose her because I'm being stupid." Amanda looked at her ex-boyfriend with full understanding. She knew he was a naturally nice person and she knew he would never purposefully get in this situation.

"The only question is why are you telling me you love her, instead of just telling her." Phineas mouthed a thank you dropped money for the food on the table and began jogging out of the restaurant. He saw Isabella about halfway there

"Isabella! I have to tell you I lo.." Isabella hit Phineas square in the side of the face with tears in her eyes. Amanda was walking out of the restaurant when she saw Phineas on the ground.

"Oh my god what happe.." Isabella hit Amanda square in the side of the face too. She spat on them as they worked to get up

"Hope your happy together." she hissed before fleeing out of the building

"Isabella wait!" Phineas said running to where he had seen her, still a little dazed from the hit and was stumbling all the way to the door. He got outside and was blinded by the sun. He looked around everywhere. She was lost in the crowd "ISABELLA!" he shouted at the top of his lungs falling to his knees "come back" he finished softly

And here he was two weeks later, blocked from her on every social network Isabella was on and not getting any messages back. Phineas knew he could look all over the world and never find a single person he loved as much as he loved Isabella. Sometimes people get second chances, at a competition, at life, at love. But Phineas knew he wasn't going to get a second chance unless that second chance was given to him by Isabella. There was no-one out there who could make him feel like everything he did was perfect when it wasn't. Even when Phineas's optimism had faulted in the past Isabella had been there. She never needed to even tell him everything would be okay, because he had her, and that made everything okay. But he didn't have her now, he didn't deserve her now. He knew the way he felt now was just as strong as she had felt when she saw him two weeks ago. Phineas was giving up on Isabella forgiving him, if he were in her place, actually he would take her back in a heartbeat, but this was different. The only thing he could hope for was that she would be happy. He had called her many times already but he decided once more wouldn't hurt. He was going to leave a message saying he would stop leaving messages, that he understood he made a mistake and didn't expect to be forgiven, and to tell Isabella to find happiness. He waited for Isabella's happy answering machine to mock him one last time with her usual cheerful voice. But instead a different voice came through. It was the same voice but it was filled with sadness, hurt and strangely some joy. It said

"Phineas?"


	2. Chapter 2

(A/N I got hit with inspiration so here is an actual ending to this previous one-shot)

Phineas sat, silent, shocked, on his end. He was amazed there was an answer at all.

"Phineas?" Isabella asked again snapping Phineas out of his shock

"Isabella!" He let out her name with a sigh of relief "It's so good to hear your voice."

"What do you want Phineas?" Again Phineas was snapped even farther into reality. Isabella didn't want to hear his voice. She was mad at him.

"Umm.. Well... I just called... to.."

"What? To explain yourself?" Phineas smiled a bit

"Yea that's it."

"Go ahead then." His smile died as quickly as it arrived.

"I.. cheated on you." He said defeated. Isabella laughed lightly on the other end

"Most people would have started with something a little less honest." Phineas smiled glad to hear her not hang up

"Well I've never been 'most people'. Its just.. I don't know. Things got out of control and before I knew it something was happening. And then when I knew I had to break it off, which I did, it was too late. And.. I wish I could come up with something better than this.. I'm sorry. I know its not enough and I know it never could be. I just.. I don't know.. You deserve better than someone who can't even recognize that he had the best thing in the world until... I'm just going to go."

"The Phineas _I_ know would **never **give up like that." Isabella said it with all the determination that was possible in a person. Phineas immediately put the phone back to his ear and answered with a voice that was no longer one of defeat but with a conviction even Isabella had never heard from him.

"I would **never **give up. Ever. Especially not you. You are the best thing that has ever happened to me, no matter how cliche that may sound. I'm not giving up. I lost. I screwed it up. Just because I realize that doesn't mean I have to like it, or fully accept it. But if there's one thing I've learned other than to never give up is that sometimes you just got to let go of what you love. No matter how much it hurts."

"I think you at least owe me the rest of the story on how you got to be kissing that girl at the restaurant." Phineas found the hope he had been sure was lost

"How about over coffee?" His hopefulness was evident despite him trying to repress it.

"I'll see you at 3 at Joe's cup of Joe on 4th street." With that Isabella hung up. She fell down onto her back. She wanted to scream, and cry, and a part of her wished she could just curl up into a ball and die right there. But she had to go get coffee with Phineas in a couple of hours. She knew why she hadn't answered earlier. She had spent a whole day crying after she found out. Then she finally picked up her phone to listen to the first message. After that she really didn't want to talk to him. All his first message had said was "I knew you wouldn't answer because you have no reason to. But I love you, only you, and I always have and always will. Know that whether you forgive me or not, I am sorry." She couldn't talk to him, or listen to his other messages. She had already forgiven him. She was supposed to be the girl who made fun of the dumb chicks who forgave cheating boyfriends. And here she was, after listening to one message, forgiving Phineas. She couldn't do it. She wouldn't forgive him. But perhaps there was an explanation. Other than him being the lowest form of human being of course. Eventually, and reluctantly, she answered the phone for one of his messages. And she even took the steps to stop him from hanging up. Now she was going to go to get coffee with him. She knew the second she saw him she would forgive him. And at this point _that _was what was upsetting her the most.

* * *

><p>"Hey Isabella. It's good to see you." Isabella walked up to Phineas in the coffee shop not looking happy. Phineas, the optimist, was expecting her to let him down as gently as possible instead of coming here just to be mad at him. The fact she showed made Phineas feel better.<p>

"Hey Phineas." They sat absentmindedly stirring their coffees until they were half empty. Finally Isabella looked up from hers and said "We both hate coffee so why don't we get this moving before we need new ones." Phineas wasn't really happy with getting it moving. The chances of this not ending well for their relationship were pretty good.

"Well I met her when you were in Mexico visiting your family a couple of months ago." Phineas painfully went through every moment he spent with Amanda. As well as every time he avoided telling Isabella the true about something or every time he outright lied to her. Isabella was impressed with his ability to go through it all but she kept her face looking unimpressed. Halfway through Phineas explaining how/why he decided to break it off with Amanda Isabella cut him off.

"I'm not happy with you." Phineas had a confused look on his face.

"Why?" The answer seemed so obvious that 'why' seemed like a valid question.

"Because here you are, having cheated on me, having lied to me, and having given me an 'I'm sorry' and I have to sit here knowing what you've done, and still accepting your lame excuse of an apology." Phineas's eyes widened

"Accepting? Does that mean we could start over again?"

"Starting over again means me liking you for years with no clue as to how you feel around me. Maybe we could think of a better way." Phineas's signature smile was back and better than ever but he made sure his excitement didn't get the better of him.

"I like you for years with no way of knowing if you feel the same?" Phineas suggested

"How about.." Isabella pulled him across the table into a kiss which he gladly returned with all the passion Isabella had ever felt. All the tension he had felt whenever he kissed Isabella was gone. He knew she was the only person he ever wanted to kiss because she was the only one he loved. If she could forgive him after catching him in that situation then clearly she felt the same way which was more than enough for Phineas to get the feeling of perfection in his life he had wanted.

* * *

><p>They walked out of the coffee shop without having drunk another sip of their coffee. They were laughing and joking to the point where what had happened over the past week clearly didn't matter to Isabella. Even if Phineas's face still showed regret.<p>

"Oh and Phineas?"

"Yes my love." Isabella smiled and replied with her normal girly voice

"Cheat on my again and I'll rip your freaking heart out." Phineas's smile didn't falter for even a second

"I guess that's fair. It has, and always will, only belong to you."


End file.
